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Transmission Lines Essential for Reliable, Low-Cost Energy

We all take energy for granted. We flick lightswitches,
charge smartphones, and work on computers that are tethered, sometimes
invisibly, to a reliable power grid. The fact that most people overlook the
power grid is a sign that it’s effective – but that effectiveness requires
constant maintenance and adaptation. Our grid’s humble beginning
in 1870 looks very different from
today’s grid – which is the largest,
most complex machine in the world. But just as our society has grown more
complex and interconnected, so too must the grid – and doing so is a bit like
fixing an airplane while flying it.

Transmission lines are the backbone of our electric grid,
and they’ve been massively under-appreciated and under-maintained in the past
few decades. Planning and investing in transmission infrastructure is crucial
to providing reliable, low-cost energy for Americans and our economy.

Transmission lines are the high-voltage highways that transport
energy from where it’s generated to where it’s used. Traditionally, they carried
energy from a central power plant to a nearby city, serving only a very local
region. Today, all of these local regions are interconnected by transmission
lines to form the North American electric grid, which draws and transports
power across the continent. Transmission lines have improved the reliability of
the grid by enabling the pooling of resources together while increasing access
to least-cost resources like wind energy, just like highways ease traffic
congestion and bolster trade.

Our transmission infrastructure was built decades ago in a
different era of power design – and investments are needed to adapt the grid to
the 21st century. The American
Infrastructure Report Card rated our energy infrastructure at a D+ last
year - not quite failing, but poor and at risk. That’s in part because most of
the country’s transmission lines are more than 50 years old, and more than
640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines across the country are at full
capacity. We need to make massive improvements this infrastructure as our power
system transitions to become cleaner and more decentralized.

Transmission lines offer a way to cost-effectively deliver
this cleaner, decentralized future. Phillip Moeller, the Executive Vice
President of the Edison Electric Institute and former FERC Commissioner, summarized
it nicely in a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing this
February:

“A robust transmission system
alleviates costly congestion, provides access to lower-cost generation,
increases the reliability and resiliency of electricity delivery, and can
flexibly adapt to changes in public policy and sources of electricity
generation. This optionality value comes at a surprisingly small cost: on
average about 11 percent of the total amount of a customer’s total electricity
bill.”

Texas provides a great example of how transmission
investments provide better reliability and access to low-cost energy. Texas has
an incredible amount of windpower. The state has more
installed wind capacity than the next three highest states combined! But
these 22,799 megawatts of windpower are all located in the sparsely-populated
western region of the state. To deliver this cheap wind energy to the growing
population in Eastern Texas, the state
designed Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) in 2005 to develop
transmission lines to improve reliability and deliver low-cost energy in the
state. CREZ would accommodate 18.5 GW of wind energy and reduce grid issues
like curtailment and congestion.

Today, this $7 billion investment provides a cost
savings of $1.7 billion per year for the next 30-50 years – which means
it’s saving a lot of money for Texas ratepayers. It’s also good for business and
the Texas
wind industry, which employs 24,000 people and has invested $42 billion in
Texas to date. In fact, Texas has already surpassed the CREZ target of 18 GW of
wind and has plans to build 70% more wind. Investments in transmission infrastructure
are crucial for continuing to save businesses and ratepayers money by reducing
inefficiencies and accessing low-cost wind energy.

In today’s energy marketplace, low-cost clean energy is
powering our future. Utilities are increasingly investing
in cleaner energy because their customers demand it, and it is a least-cost
source of generating electricity. Additionally, corporations are purchasing
renewable energy to power their operations to help their bottom line and
reach sustainability goals. The
challenge the grid faces will be planning and constructing transmission
lines quickly enough; it is currently a multi-year, laborious process. Indeed,
stakeholder have suggested streamlining the transmission planning process and
studying the true costs and benefits of upgrades.

We know that transmission lines are needed, we know how to
build them – but we need to find a way to build them more quickly. The 21st
century is a fast-paced world – and our grid needs to adapt quickly to power us
forward.